4 ms·

Is this a canary in the coal mine? I've been following layoffs for the last few years, and it generally seems like ~10% is normal, with larger companies doing

by xrd 3y ago

Is this a canary in the coal mine? I've been following layoffs for the last few years, and it generally seems like ~10% is normal, with larger companies doing a smaller percentage, while startups often layoff 10% or slightly more. 28% is a scary number. I'm betting that everyone on this site has visited StackOverflow at least once. If they cannot figure out a way to weather an incoming storm, then this makes me even less hopeful about tech employment in general. But, then again, SO did get purchased in 2021 by Prosus (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosus). Scary times ahead? Or, just more evidence that private equity ruins everything good? Or, an entirely new story that AI is going to rapidly destroy all businesses?

malfist 3y ago
I wouldn't try to read the tea leaves from a single company
sbarre 3y ago
Context matters. We are coming out of a ZIRP (zero interest rate policy) period where debt was effectively free and lots of companies borrowed and grew very quickly (some/many/most probably knowing they might eventually need to shrink back down some amount if the financial climate changed). I have no idea if this was the case with Stack Overflow, do we know how many people they hired in the last 3 years, leading up to this cut?
contravariant 3y ago
AI is a red herring, you would be hiring people to work on that not just firing people working on something else. A common trend in these lay-offs is that I can't for the life of me come up with what those employees would be doing. That combined with a sudden lack of easy money due to rising interests rates and more uncertainty about pretty much everything seems like a simpler explanation for these lay-offs.
- struant 3y ago
  StackOverflow have already lost completely to ChatGPT. Hiring people to work on AI would just be throwing away that money.
francisofascii 3y ago
> Or, just more evidence that private equity ruins everything good? I think it is this. Private equity translates to layoffs regardless of the need for layoffs.

by xrd 3y ago

malfist 3y ago

I wouldn't try to read the tea leaves from a single company

sbarre 3y ago

Context matters. We are coming out of a ZIRP (zero interest rate policy) period where debt was effectively free and lots of companies borrowed and grew very quickly (some/many/most probably knowing they might eventually need to shrink back down some amount if the financial climate changed). I have no idea if this was the case with Stack Overflow, do we know how many people they hired in the last 3 years, leading up to this cut?

contravariant 3y ago

AI is a red herring, you would be hiring people to work on that not just firing people working on something else. A common trend in these lay-offs is that I can't for the life of me come up with what those employees would be doing. That combined with a sudden lack of easy money due to rising interests rates and more uncertainty about pretty much everything seems like a simpler explanation for these lay-offs.

struant 3y ago
StackOverflow have already lost completely to ChatGPT. Hiring people to work on AI would just be throwing away that money.

francisofascii 3y ago

> Or, just more evidence that private equity ruins everything good? I think it is this. Private equity translates to layoffs regardless of the need for layoffs.